Paul N. Lazarus Sr. was associated with United Artists from its founding in 1919 and served in various executive capacities related primarily to domestic sales. This file of general sales correspondence brings together materials dealing with the sales aspect of the film distribution business over a twenty year period.
Lazarus' role was that of intermediary between the producers representatives and the sales force. When salesmen turned in contracts unsatisfactory to the producers, Lazarus would instruct the salesmen on the changes necessary for the sale to be approved; when special circumstances dictated that reduced sales terms were appropriate, Lazarus would intervene with the producers and explain the need for reductions.
In performing these functions, Lazarus was in constant correspondence, not only with the sales force and the producers representatives, but with exhibitors as well, since letters of complaint and requests for reduced rentals were frequently directed to him. The earlier portions of the file are particularly interesting for the light which they shed on the problems of the small exhibitor in the face of both the arrival of sound and of the Depression.
In the later years, especially, there is extensive correspondence of a legal nature, involving attempts by exhibitors to bring anti-trust actions against United Artists in the wake of the Paramount decision and involving investigations by exhibitor checking companies (confidential reports, Sargoy and Stein) of possible fraud by theatres.
Finally, the file contains large quantities of statistical reports, and breakdowns on sales, along with surveys, projections and reports dealing with various aspects of sales, distribution and exhibition.
